Sweet girl's murder may be solved

"Mama, I'm not dead," she tells her. "I'm alive. I've just been hiding."

In the dream, Nereida is holding her newborn infant, an adorable baby girl with thick wavy hair. The happy young mother is radiant, ageless.

These dreams are both a comfort and a torture to Rosa Melendez, whose youngest child died 25 years ago today, strangled with the strap of her pocketbook on the day of her high school graduation. After she didn't show up for the ceremony, family members launched a frantic search and found her body the next morning under a rain-soaked pile of leaves near Bell Pond.

Just 17, Nereida was a delightful young woman who was excited about her graduation from North High, staying up the night before to bake cookies and brownies for upcoming festivities. She was headed to college to study business and couldn't wait to start a family.

Instead, she is buried in a quiet corner of St. John's Cemetery, laid to rest in the white commencement gown she never wore. But she is not forgotten, neither by her family or police.

Wednesday, District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said investigators are confident that progress in the 25-year-old case could yield results within the next several months. But he declined to elaborate or say whether evidence gathered will be presented to a grand jury.

"This case has been worked as hard as any case since I've been here," Early said. "We can't disclose to the families or the media everything we're doing. You run the risk of sabotaging the case. But we're very hopeful. ... We feel very good about the direction we're headed and where we'll be in the next few months."

Such words are encouraging to Nereida's family, who sat in Rosa Melendez's apartment this week and remembered the confident, ambitious girl known to everyone as "Nettie." Tears still come easily to her mother's eyes when she speaks of her daughter, of her hopes that the killer will be brought to justice.

"I wish they would have found someone by now," Rosa said. "The police used to talk to us but they don't anymore. Time goes by, but for me it's like it happened yesterday."

On June 5, 1989, Nettie disappeared after dropping off a van she had borrowed from the Shrewsbury Street cleaning company that employed her as a receptionist. The family believes she accepted a ride from someone she knew and that she was acquainted with her killer. One suspect was reportedly obsessed with the young woman and has long been a person of interest.

The killing was an immediate priority for police, but no one was ever charged. Then, when Worcester police formed a cold case squad in 2009 headed by Detective Sgt. Mark Sawyer, detectives once again honed in on the Melendez homicide.

"Nettie was one of the few pure innocents," Deputy Police Chief Edward McGinn Jr. said at the time. "A lot of homicide victims are in the criminal mix. But a 17-year-old killed on the day of her graduation, you don't get much more heartbreaking than that."

The cold case unit has reaped impressive results, among them last week's conviction in the 20-year-old fatal shooting of Kevin Harkins. Nettie's family followed that case with renewed hope that Nettie's killer will be next. Today, when they visit her grave, they will once again pray for resolution.

"Whenever we get a conviction like that, the other families ask legitimate questions — 'what about our case?'" Early noted. "All of these cases are important. The pain is just as real for them now. And they should have hope."